How should I fix my mentality on the SAT for each section? Tips also appreciated :D

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>Hello, I’m taking an SAT class at Elite Prep, a school that gives out harder problems on their practice tests and their difficulty has caused me problems. For the previously distributed official SAT tests (they use two old ones), my highest scores for both have been (I only value these because they’re actual college board tests):</p>

<p>Writing: 690 (8 on Essay)
Math: 700
Critical Reading: 660</p>

<p>For writing (Multiple Choice), the test is really easy and I’ve gotten every improving sentences problem right at least once, but identifying sentence errors have been hard, especially the last 8. I freeze on each 4 or 5 problem for each sentence error problem and all of my incorrect/omitted answers come from that section. For the essay, I’m usually lost with what to do my plot and I end up writing an average essay that when I realize I could change it into something better, it’s too late. I also rush when I don’t feel confident about my essay. I have never gotten above an 8 (Elite grades harder and it is purported that an 8 equals a 10 on to a college board grader, but I just want a good essay) and my teacher has said that my essays aren’t developed, the transitions are bad, and my examples are bad or I tell stories too much. My teacher hasn’t explained about how to improve the above because he says he’s busy. He also tends to put me down in the comments (I used the ancient Romans in an example and my info was wrong and he said, "I have a Masters in Ancient Roman Sociology [or something of that nature] from UC Berkeley and all I could say is that you’re wrong and you haven’t improved your essays). It’s demoralizing</p>

<p>For math, I have no problems, I just need to brush up on certain types of questions and time management. My weakest area is geometry and I get frustrated easily sometimes on certain problems. Other than that I’m fine with math.</p>

<p>Critical Reading is my weakest subject by far. I usually minus 0-2 on sentence completion, but anything passage based befuddles me. I’m occasionally stuck on what seems to be an easy problem and usually these are inference/tone/“the author would most likely agree with which statement” questions. I also don’t know whether I should read the passage or questions first. I’m also not sure if I should annotate because I heard annotating a passage can help. But I don’t know.</p>

<p>If anyone has tips or advice, it would be appreciated, thanks! :D</p>

<p>Wish me luck in October!</p>

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<p>Writing: Erica Meltzer’s grammar book will definitely help! & How to write a 12 essay in 10 days by academichacker for the essay :slight_smile:
Math: PWN the Sat covers basically everything
Critical Reading: Direct Hits for vocab and for passages, use blue book to practice untimed tests.
Good luck!</p>

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<p>First and foremost, USE THE BLUE BOOK - it’s the best book out there.</p>

<p>Critical Reading - Brush up on vocab with Direct Hits and/or Quizlet/flashcards. These vocab questions are easily preventable mistakes as long as you master the vocab. For passage-based questions, try to first go through a couple tests without timing yourself. Take all the time you need, but try to get all the questions right. As you improve your accuracy, go back to timed tests and gradually work on timing.</p>

<p>Writing - Most sentences can be corrected by the way they sound. If something doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t. That being said, I must warn you that it’s easy to second guess even “no errors” once you get into the 700s. As for the essay, use literature, history, current events, etc. but oftentimes, just using people gets you to that 10. It helps to brainstorm a list of examples organized by literature, history, people and current events, with attributes/themes associated with each example before the test. Make sure to learn this list, so that you are less likely to have writer’s block on test day (after all, you only have 25 minutes). Also, study the format of typical College Board essays and derive your own formula based on that. That way, you could write a crappy essay on one of those bad writing days, but still get a 10 (trust me, I’ve been there). </p>

<p>Math - Definitely brush up on geometry. Just as with critical reading, do some untimed practice. When you come across a question/concept that you don’t know, look it up. </p>

<p>Here are some study resources that I have gathered from my own personal experience and through skimming these forums:</p>

<p>CR:
-Vocab: Direct Hits (book), SAT Vocab Cartoons (book), Quizlet (online), Mindsnacks (found on the Apple App store), Test Your English Vocabulary (Android app - just drills you on vocab with 10 question quizzes; great for on-the-go practice rather than studying)
-Passage Practice: Untimed Blue Book tests, Erica Meltzer’s CR Guide (book)</p>

<p>Math:
-Khan Academy (online), PWN the SAT Math (book), Dr. Chung’s (book - mainly geared for high scorers to get up from 650ish to high 700s), Untimed Blue Book tests</p>

<p>Writing:
-Erica Meltzer’s Grammar Guide
-For the essay: your own list of canned examples organized by people, literature and history, with themes/attributes for each</p>

<p>Know that you don’t need all of these resources (since that would probably cost a fortune) but if I were to recommend a couple, I would say: THE BLUE BOOK (absolute necessity), Mindsnacks (found on the Apple App store - the first lesson with 20 words is free, the other 24 lessons can be bought for ~$5) and Erica Meltzer’s The Critical Reader (I haven’t personally used this but I have heard rave reviews - if you don’t want to buy her book quite yet you could check out her website, which also has Grammar resources: <a href=“http://www.thecriticalreader.com/”>A closer look at "being" - The Critical Reader).</p>

<p>Hope this helps! Good Luck! :)</p>